This is the first time MRSA of livestock origin has been found in British pig meat. The findings add to the growing evidence that overuse of antibiotics in farming is contributing to resistance in life-threatening infections in humans, and supports the call for urgent action to address inappropriate use in farming.

And so it begins again. In spite of all the evidence and against all reasonable scientific advice, the sound of rifles and shotguns will be ringing out at night across large parts of Gloucestershire and Somerset over the coming weeks, as innocent badgers are indiscriminately massacred whilst going about their nocturnal business

Owen Paterson has served English farmers, taxpayers and, most of all, the wildlife he was supposed to protect, very badly indeed. Liz Truss would be well advised to use her experience from her time in the Education Department to learn from his mistakes.

So long, Owen Paterson: we won't miss you. You were truly the worst environment secretary for decades. With that act to follow, Ms Truss might be tempted to relax; hardly much to live up to. That would be a mistake. There's already a lot in her in-tray and a lot of mess to clean up from her predecessor...

Badgers are our largest surviving carnivore and have lived in our landscape for over half million years. Some badger setts in our countryside are over 500 years old and date back to the Elizabethan era. However our relationship with this iconic species has often been savage and cruel.

It's clear to me, and no doubt the thousands of people whose lives have been destroyed by the winter floods that it's not just nature that is to blame for the now annual flood destruction, farmers and Government must also share in the responsibility. After all, we had been warned. And repeatedly.

This year's Budget has to create some movement in a positive direction for the many millions of people for whom the past six years have been cumulatively, increasingly difficult. Many people attending foodbanks have jobs. Too often those jobs are insecure, with uncertain hours. Poor people need better base pay, more employment security, more full time rather than part time work.

There was an odd reaction from the National Farmers' Union (NFU) at their Birmingham Conference this week to proposals for controlled floodwater attenuation in upland farms (and elsewhere); condemning such plans as "ludicrous".

The floods have exposed the gossamer thin argument for austerity and the cold, cruel ideology that underlies it. The inescapable truth is that we all rely on properly funded and resourced public services - maybe not directly every minute of every day but, nonetheless, all the time, because the alternative means abandoning people when they most need our help.

It's time ladies and gentlemen to all join ranks and fight puppy farming so that every single one of us is proudly part of positive change for animal welfare, and the world will be reminded once again of the nation of animal lovers we proudly once were before we preferred to exploit them by painful greed and unnecessary suffering.

For many wildlife experts, scientists, veterinarians and local residents, the pilot badger culls in parts of Somerset and Gloucestershire over the last six weeks proved that shooting large numbers of free-roaming badgers was unsafe, inhumane and inefficient.

The government has declared war on England's badgers. The shameful, politically motivated slaughter has begun. Far from the controlled, humane and science-led cull the government promised, what we have is fast-developing chaos, division and suffering in our countryside

For most of us this week is pretty normal. School holidays are coming to their natural autumnal end and everything's pretty routine with nothing particularly exciting going on. But for our beloved pets, unknown to them, it's potentially a time of great change and hopefully progress.

Fresh from the horse meat scandal, DEFRA has found itself in a new controversy, having again failed the British consumer in food traceability and labelling. The public now knows that over 20,000 cattle infected with bovine TB enter the food chain in the UK each year, and the government doesn't know where they go, where they are sold, and who is eating them.

Today we see many sustainable brands borne out of this love for vintage , Christopher Raeburn and Junky Styling London, to name but two. However, as the market demands clothing with a conscience more sustainable fabrics and ethical means of manufacture become available.